Explaining math
October 21, 2007
Here’s an extraordinary essay on explaining math which goes a long way towards illustrating what’s wrong with education by memorization in general. I am not very good at math, but I don’t think it’s because I lack aptitude. I’ve actually made great strides recently under my own power. But almost all of my early education in math came in the form of drills and memorization of tables. None of my elementary school teachers made much effort to actually explain what was going on, and it was only through intense, daily remedial after-school tutelage from my Trigonometry teacher that I was ever able to pass Trig in the first place. Somewhere along the way I missed a comprehension step, or a whole series of comprehension steps, and math has therefore always remained a struggle for me.
Math is not the only place where this happens, though — the number of people who come out of high school thinking interpreting literature means matching up “symbols” to their appropriate “meaning” is, or who think they dislike reading because of what they were forced to read, is a real frustration to teachers in my own academic field.
In high school — and to a certain extent college — what we most wanted to know about what we were taught was why the knowledge was relevant. Most teachers were not able to make their own subject matter relevant to us. Some of them might have tried to make it fun or attractive, but it was never really interesting unless we knew why we were doing it. Maybe that’s why sports is so popular — physical prowess is easy to make relevant. Trig not so much.
Now, with the Virginia Standards of Learning, No Child Left Behind, and other similar programs I’m afraid we’re tossing relevance out completely in favor of test scores and the illusion of “accountability.” That’s why I like to find essays like this from time to time; someone will have to teach thinking to Cory, and it looks like that someone will have to be us.
Sure hope I remember how to do it.
Posted in Education
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October 22nd, 2007 at 9:28 pm
Math was not my strong suit either. The only mathematics subject that really hit home with me–and that actually made sense to me at the time as to why it was relevant–was Geometry.
Everything from the concept of theorems to geometric equations had real-world relevance to me. It was the only math subject I ever enjoyed.
I’m still trying to figure out why we need Calculus.
October 23rd, 2007 at 7:39 am
As I remember it, Calculus is vitally important for describing functions that change very rapidly. We wouldn’t be able to manage space flight without it, or predict / simulate physics without it, or make a lot of modern video games without it. (I imagine there’s a fair amount of Calculus and vector geometry in Halo 3).
Of course, by the time I got to Calc and math got interesting I was already so far lost…
October 23rd, 2007 at 8:58 am
…which is precisely why I’m not managing space flights or doing anything related to physics.
Lucky World.
October 23rd, 2007 at 8:31 pm
I’m currently girding my loins (figuratively speaking, ya know) to fight a battle with the Virginia Dept of Ed over their proposed changes to the Social Science Standards of Learning. They want to take Civil War and Reconstruction away from 5th grade and give it to me. But they’re not taking anything away from my curriculum or adding a 3rd year of history. My concerns have been poo-pooed by the Dept of Ed (form letter reply to my e-mail) and by the Social Studies supervisor at the School Board Office. We’re having a meeting.
Big problem with American education? We don’t allow enough time to teach the concepts deeply. That’s why they aren’t relevant. The students have 2 days to learn something really complicated, so the teachers are forced to teach it by memorization.
God help me if I try to slow down and really explain the relevance of my history curriculum. I get yelled at for being “behind the [curriculum] map”.
I’m ready to home school future children so they won’t be screwed over by this nonsense.
October 23rd, 2007 at 8:35 pm
Oh, but I suck at math (probably for the same reasons you mentioned), so I’ll need some help there.
October 24th, 2007 at 4:10 pm
That’s why Michael and I are homeschooling. In Thailand. Actually, I really like the idea of “unschooling”, and might try that for post-elementary stuff.
Did you know Madison (Charla’s daughter with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis) is being forced to take “isolated lunch” in order to make up her reading quota? That’s a great way to instill love of reading, huh? A friend of mine has a son reading at least three grades above his class - but he’s not allowed to check out books about his grade level, because it might make his classmates feel less intelligent.
I taught myself math, up through Algebra II, before I took my SATs. Michael is a natural; he loves math. Of course, he was homeschooled…
October 24th, 2007 at 4:13 pm
Auntie M - My husband taught for a year, and the school didn’t renew his contract - because he refused to stick to their “plan” and instead taught the kids what he thought they needed to learn.
Several of the kids still email him to thank him, to tell him he was the best teacher they had. Especially those now in college.
October 28th, 2007 at 11:56 pm
The core of the problem with that stupid NCLB act is that it attempts to place all children on a level playing field and then plop them into a linear scale. It fails to account for differences in developmental stages, learning styles and all those social issues that affect learning. I am a pretty smart cookie, but I didn’t get algebra until I was a freshman in college and then I was like duh…why didn’t I get this before? It was because I wasn’t developmentally ready to get it. Math is an conceptual/abstract field of study and comes to learners only when they are ready or when taught by a teacher who can meet the learner where they are developmentally.
I am certain that if you took math courses now from beginning onward, you will excel. It has nothing to do with age, only with developmental readiness. NCLB won’t recognize that and students will be forced to become frustrated automatons.
October 29th, 2007 at 6:11 am
I’m not sure that’s the “problem” with NCLB or the Virginia SOLs for that matter. I think they are doing precisely what they were designed to do, which is destroy people’s faith in public education and complete the privatization / profitization of education.
October 29th, 2007 at 12:22 pm
Well, ironically for me, I hadn’t considered the conspiracy aspect of the NCLB…must think some more about that. I do know that in Washington state we were well underway in designing a proficiency exam for seniors before the NCLB ever saw daylight. I worked for an organization that was trying to respond to the back to basics movement that was hot in our state at the time - it was an attempt to force educators to face accountability. The NCLB came along and changed that focus to forcing the kids to face the sins of the fathers so to speak.
As a big and vocal opponent of the NCLB, I’ve had moments of heebie jeebie when I realized that many of the folks on my side of the table were hard core ‘educational separtists”. I so don’t want to appear to be aligned with that group because I do believe that public education is the great equalizer…although now the playing field has been greatly lowered.
We need to rethink public education and bring learning up to the standards that work for this world.